Quote:
Originally Posted by Amanah
Bro Aaron, I read both of your blogs.
My main concern with organic church is how effective is it in making and baptizing disciples?
I have seen traditional church be very effective in ministry and changing people's lives.
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That concern is legitimate, but not limited to "organic church" (not a term I use, although I am familiar with it). Many are the traditional churches that don't do much in the way of making and baptizing disciples.
What is at issue is the heart of the individual, what concerns them most, and what they are willing to sacrifice to be a witness for and to the Lord.
For example, one of my main concerns with traditional church is how members are often browbeaten into evangelizing, or how only a small percent of the members bother to share the Good News, or how a specialized ministry is expected to be the ones doing the lion's share of the effort to be a part of what the Anointed One is doing to build the Kingdom of God on earth.
And while that may seem like 3 separate concerns, in my mind, it's actually all one and the same, reflecting merely the different ways the same issue tends to play out among traditional church assemblies.
When only some members of the church care enough about souls to be a light in their community, a disparity is created between those who do the work of an evangelist, and those who just enjoy absorbing someone else's efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. Then, because only a small percentage are doing the Lord's work on earth, another facet of disparity arises, in which it becomes the expected norm that this small percentage are the specially anointed ministers expected to do the evangelizing, and so, the third facet is created, which is, this small percentage of specialized ministers get burnt out and upset at the lack of effort being made by the rest of the membership, rightly realizing they cannot delegate responsibility to people who are too carnal to get off the pew. So the rebuking begins, and never seems to end, because from the beginning, the entire church wasn't engaged or properly taught, and getting someone to unlearn something that has given rise to comfortable Christianity is very hard to do.
Conversely, if a church starts off having a specialized ministry mindset, instead of an every member working priesthood, then the specialized ministry elevates itself in the eyes of the membership, directly or indirectly convincing the members that they are the only ones called and equipped by God to do the work of the Lord, so the rest of the church stops attempting to do much of anything besides spectating, which breeds laziness of character in the hearts of the other members. This laziness is perceived, and as the specialized ministry mindset continues to deepen, those who are a part of this group day in, day out, work themselves into a frenzy trying to keep things going, and eventually reach a point of spiritual exhaustion. At which point, they wish others would step up and pick up, the slack. But it doesn't happen, so the responsibility never changes hands, and the church never grows numerically, and the specialized ministers become upset, and start blaming the rest of the church for not doing their part, while at the same time, never taking the blame for not taking the Biblical doctrine of every-member priesthood seriously. Again, the rebuking begins, and some, out of guilt or fear, motivate themselves to go out and "win the lost", only to find they cannot succeed, because their efforts came from wrong reasonings, and so, they get discouraged, and quit, no matter how often they get scolded.
It's a vicious cycle any church can fall into, no matter the starting point.
Of course, this is all from my limited experience, but at the same time, I see in the Acts of the Apostles a completely different model, one that was nearly derailed in
Acts 6, when the Apostles were bogged down and being overwhelmed with responsibilities that didn't fall to them to do. Had they followed the modern church model, they would have never created the deaconate, they would have continued on holding the reins over all aspects of the church, until stress overload took them over, and the sustained revival of the fledgling New Covenant Ekklesia would have withered away.
The model espoused by the so-called organic church highly esteems every-member priesthood, and seeks to empower people to learn how to serve the Master in every aspect of their lives, allowing Jesus to be king and head of every man, even as it allows every man to be head over his woman, and their family.
The concerns you feel come in when, because "organic church" members are expected to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, and that interfering with how a man leads his family is an un-Biblical practice (see the Greek from "busybody in other men's affairs" in
1 Peter 4:15), sometimes people fall through the cracks, and accountability is lost, so know one really knows who is actively living up to the commandments of God or not. This is how such models fall into the trap of cloistering and not doing much of anything for God, but meeting around a coffee table, having chit-chats, instead of seeking God and emulating Christ in all aspects of their lives.
So, if a church would dodge either trap, no matter their model (traditional or "organic"), they must find a way to allow for an every-member priesthood and headship of every man over his own family, while at the same time, inspiring desire, passion, and accountability to manifest in the members, so the members long to forsake the desires of their flesh and serve the Master in reverence.
It's a lot of work, no matter where you hang your hat, or what type of church you're apart of, as the fact of the matter is, people tend to be inherently stubborn, and don't like to submit, be corrected, or taught another way.
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